Our guide to the best eSports betting sites in the UK is aimed at anyone who wants to get the most from the hobby. We’ll tell you what you can bet on and identify the bookmakers that have the best betting markets, the most competitive odds and the most attractive bonuses and promotions. We’ll even give you a few tips on how to improve your chances of winning.
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This isn’t a YouTube video, so we won’t keep you waiting until the very end before we spill the beans. The ten best esports betting sites right now are:
Now it is time to take a more detailed look at our choices for the best eSports gambling sites currently available in the UK.
It will probably surprise no one to find out that bet365 tops our eSports betting website list. It is number one overall in the UK in terms of bets placed and sports betting revenue share of the UK’s annual £12 billion+ of total gross gambling yield. What may surprise you is that we’ve chosen bet365 as number one for eSports betting.
We’ve done that because Bet365 has an extensive list of competitive video games that it covers. Indeed we could find no other site that covers eSports betting so comprehensively. CS:GO, CS2 and LOL are the top eSports covered, with betting options for Valorant, Mobile Legends, Wild Rift (LOL mobile) and plenty of others. The truth is, if you want to bet on an eSports match-up, then Bet365 is where you are most likely to find it.
What We Like:
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You’ve probably heard of spread betting, but if you’ve never actually placed a spread bet, you might be wondering what it’s all about? Well, it’s a way of betting on a range of outcomes, such as goals scored during a football match. The more accurate your prediction, the more you win. The less accurate your prediction, the more you lose. That really is it in a nutshell.
So, how does spread betting work with an eSports bookmaker that accepts spread bets? Well, just as it does with non-eSports – you can bet on the range of any measurable outcome. Spread betting on eSports works best with games such as FIFA and NBA 2k, as outcomes have a decent range. If these are your top eSports betting titles, then SpreadEx could be the UK eSports betting site that you’ve been looking for.
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If you are based in Ireland then you have most definitely heard of QuinnBet. It’s one of the ‘big three’ when it comes to sports betting on the Emerald Isle (you’ll find out the identity of the other two later on in this page). If you are based in the UK and are interested in horse racing betting, then you’ve probably heard of QuinnBet too. But what about eSports?
We are happy to inform you that QuinnBet is perfectly fine as an eSports betting site. The coverage is not as immense as it is for horse racing, but that’s only to be expected. Even so, all the top eSports such as CS2, CS:GO and LOL receive full coverage, and most other eSports are covered too. Why not check out QuinnBet’s eSports options yourself?
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Next on our list, we come to 10bet. We really know this site well as it has long been one of our favourites. It has a nice clean design, and while it does advertise its bonus deals, it is certainly not as ‘in your face’ as other sites. We know all about 10bet when it comes to sports betting, but how highly does it score when your intent is to bet online on eSports?
The answer is – highly enough. While eSports coverage is certainly not as extensive as it is at other sites on our list, 10bet scores well for CS and other leading eSports such as LOL, DOTA and Mobile Legends. We would like to see much more coverage going forward though. And hopefully, that’s something 10bet will improve upon in the near future.
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Virgin Bet began its life as part of the Virgin Group, a legendary company and name in the UK. It’s not wholly part of that group anymore though, as it was sold to the same people who run LeoVegas a few years back now. This turned out to be a bonus because Virgin Bet has improved significantly since that sale.
Betting on eSports here is an exceptional experience. There are markets for the Call of Duty League, CS2: Blast and all other top eSports competitions held globally. Whether or not you’re an eSports betting virgin, Virgin Bet is well worth checking out.
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We did mention earlier that we’d tell you about QuinnBet’s main rivals in sports betting. One of them is BoyleSports. This sports betting site began as a real-world betting company in Ireland in 1982, branching out online in 2014. It is now a well-known name in the UK, thanks in part to its sponsorship deals with the likes of Sunderland and Birmingham City.
Famed for football and horse racing, you might well ask how BoyleSports fares in eSports. As a DOTA 2 betting site, for example? The answer is… very well indeed! As well as watching people defending the ancients, you’ll easily be able to bet on all the big CS2, CS:GO and LOL match-ups, and watch them too! BoyleSports tries to stream every single eSports event that you can bet on at the site.
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There’s one sure-fire thing we can bet on… when Fred Done opened up his first betting shop in 1967, he had no idea that one day he’d be offering odds on people playing video games. And how could he? According to Britannica, even ‘Pong’ did not exist until 1972. Half a century later and indeed Betfred – the betting company from which that first step in sports betting sprang – now offers a very decent range of opportunities to bet on eSports online.
So what exactly does Betfred offer? Well, sadly it offers an old-fashioned looking sports betting site that really needs a makeover. If you can get past that, then betting on eSports here is certainly worth your time. It isn’t particularly easy to find the eSports markets here. But when you do, you’ll find you can bet on COD, CS:GO, DOTA2, LOL, Overwatch and Starcraft.
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Parimatch has been around for a long, long time … but not in the UK. This Gibraltar-based company ‘only’ entered the UK market in 2015, and it took a while for them to get their name heard as sports betting in the UK online was only just taking off. And back then, people were flocking to the names they already knew, such as Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill.
Parimatch is finally making a name for itself in the UK, which is superb news for people who like to bet on eSports online. Non-UK-based companies seem to have better eSports coverage than UK ones for some reason, and Parimatch is no exception. CS:GO, CS2, DOTA 2 and LOL are among the top options, but all main eSports are covered for a top eSports betting experience.
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Let’s get this out of the way first – several people think that VBet and Virgin Bet are the same site. But they are not! Virgin Bet is run by LeoVegas, and VBet is run by SCGO. They are very much independent from one another. Not that’s that out of the way, let’s explore VBet (a company that has had a UK presence since 2016) and why we recommend it as an eSports bookmaker.
The eSports options at VBet are mixed in totally with the non-eSports options. Some people might not like this, but it gets our vote of approval as it shows VBet gives eSports equal status alongside the best non-eSports events. And there are plenty of eSports betting options, with CS2 and CS:GO gaining the best coverage. All top eSports are covered though, no matter what you want to eBet on!
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Casino gamblers in the UK will know all about Grosvenor. This company runs the highest number of real-world casinos in the UK (see this parliamentary PDF for proof) from Aberdeen down to Bournemouth. You can play blackjack and roulette at these places, but COD and Fortnite are somewhat off-limits. Grosvenor added sports betting to its gambling portfolio in 2014, and has added eSports betting much more recently. It’s the latter we will be taking a short look at.
First up is our usual eSports quibble – again, the options are a little difficult to find as there’s too much clicking (or finger-stabbing) involved. When you get there you are rewarded though – DOTA2, CS:GO, CS2 and LOL are all very well covered, as are Rainbow 6, Call of Duty, Wild Rift, Mobile Legends, Overwatch 2 and Valorant. All this adds up to a very decent eSports betting app and site.
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Let’s get things started with an explanation of what we look for when we are evaluating a site before we deem it worthy to be added to our top eSports betting site list. By reading this guide you’ll get an idea of what you should be looking out for too.
The most convenient way of betting on eSports is to bet using a phone or tablet. No one really wants to fire up a laptop or desktop PC just to place a bet. We champion sites that have downloadable apps for iOS and Android, although sadly there are not too many that do. However, all sites are available to use in a mobile browser, and we test the effectiveness of each for eSports live betting.
Wondering where you can bet on specific eSports titles? Then check the table below to find out!
Bookie | CS:GO | Dota 2 | LoL | Overwatch | StarCraft 2 | Rainbow Six |
Bet365 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Spreadex | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
QuinnBet | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
10bet | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
Virgin Bet | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
BoyleSports | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
Betfred | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
PariMatch | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
VBet | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Grosvenor Sports | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Esports betting offers are not perhaps as prevalent as they ought to be. Very few sites now offer sports betting offers that are solely for eSports. However, this doesn’t mean that you should give up, and give in! There are plenty of sports betting offers from online bookies, and you should be able to use them to bet on eSports online without any cost to yourself.
Here are a few different types of eSports betting offers you may find, or that you will be alerted to by us when we uncover them thanks to our award-winning bonus hunting detective techniques!
Free Bet:
No-Deposit Bonus:
Deposit Bonus:
Cashback:
The odds at eSports betting sites dictate how much you will get paid for winning. It doesn’t matter if you are an eSports expert or not. If the odds you are using are poor, then you won’t get decent returns when betting on eSports.
The good news is that in the UK, odds do not vary too greatly across video game betting sites. All betting sites keep an eye on each other’s odds as they want to remain competitive. If a site is frequently offering poor odds, then it is going to lose customers.
We consider the competitiveness of eSports odds when we are taking a look through any site. It’s one of our key criteria, as it ought to be for you. You can therefore rest assured that all the sites we mention on this page offer the best eSports betting odds.
All forms of gambling in the UK are regulated by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, and that includes UK eSports betting sites. If you are based in the UK, then it is strongly recommended that you stay clear of any site that accepts UK customers and doesn’t have a UKGC licence.
You can check any site’s licence at the UKGC website. You can rest assured that all the sites we mention on our pages are UKGC-registered sites. We simply do not give any coverage whatsoever in the UK to eSports betting websites that do not possess the necessary UKGC licensing.
Gambling on skins is a confusing aspect of eSports betting, especially for those who are not video gamers themselves. In terms of software, the images of the characters and important pieces of equipment (such as guns!) are initially designed as what are called ‘meshes’. Imagine window-display dummies naked before they are ‘dressed’. The final layer of these images is called a ‘skin’. All gaming characters and items come with a default skin, but players can change skins based on their own tastes. Such skins have to be bought or earned with in-game currency or real money. Rare skins become so popular that they can fetch huge amounts. One Counter-Strike skin sold for $400,000 in April 2023.
With skins betting sites players can bet on the skin a specific competitor is likely to use when they are playing a match. The odds of a specific skin for a specific character or item are displayed, and players are paid if their predictions are accurate.
Skins betting largely began with CS:GO betting sites, as CS:GO was one of the first games to introduce the concept of skins. In the UK though, no sites currently offer skins betting. While not actually banned, it is thought that skins betting is too attractive to children, that it is too easy to manipulate and is purely a matter of luck. UK betting sites do not offer it as they fear the wrath of the UKGC for failing to protect vulnerable gamblers.
Although crypto payments are more popular among eSports bettors as opposed to non-eSports bettors, UKGC-licensed betting sites do not currently offer Bitcoin and other crypto payment options. Like skins payments, cryptocurrencies are not actually banned by the UKGC, but they are frowned upon as it is thought that they facilitate money laundering. In the past, the UKGC has sanctioned many sites for not taking the necessary precautions to prevent money laundering. For example, in 2023 the UKGC fined Platinum Gaming £7.1 million for ineffective anti-money laundering processes.
Online eSports betting really is not that much different from betting on regular sports. Please bear in mind that we are talking about betting on competitive video games and not virtual sports which involve betting on computer simulations of real world sports such as football, horse racing and greyhounds. With eSport betting you are betting on players and teams taking part in video gaming competitions and tournaments.
Live eSports betting works in the same way as live betting on non-eSports. This type of betting allows you to place bets on any eSports event that has already begun. It could involve LOL betting or CS:GO betting or any competitive video game where markets are offered.
Head to the eSports live betting section of any site and you’ll be able to see the current in-play eSports markets. Many live betting options will be the same as pre-match options such as the eventual winner, match handicap, total maps played and individual maps winner. Just click on the outcome you want to bet on and it will be added to your bet slip.
Set your stake and click ‘place bet’. You will have to be quick though as in live betting the status of the match can change in a split second!
An eSports betting app should significantly enhance your eSports betting experience. While video gamers are accustomed to being seated in front of computer monitors, not everyone wants to sit in front of a monitor when betting on eSports!
A handful of betting sites provide downloadable apps for iOS and Android, but the majority of them have web-optimised sites that work brilliantly within phone and tablet web browsers. You can experience the full functionality of any betting site including live betting and, where available, live streaming.
Not all video games are eSports. You won’t, for example, find many UK betting sites willing to take bets on Mario Kart, the Legend of Zelda or Grand Theft Auto. Below we briefly go through each of the most popular eSports for pre-match and live betting.
Counter-Strike betting sites are really where eSports betting all began. Famously only ever on PC, Counter-Strike was first released in 2000 but interest in the game exploded with the release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) in 2012. The next main iteration of Counter-Strike (called Counter-Strike 2) was released in 2023.
CS:GO is a team-based first-person shooter (FPS) in which two armed teams of five compete to be the first to complete their objective. The CS:GO Major Championships take place once or twice a year.
Since 2009 League of Legends (LOL) has been regarded as the best multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, and League of Legends betting sites remain extremely popular, right up until the present day. In a MOBA, teams battle to force entry into the territory of the opposing team and destroy the source of their power, which in LOL is called a Nexus.
In LOL it’s two teams of five that do battle, usually over three or five rounds called ‘maps’. There are currently several LOL tournaments and leagues globally, continent-wide and in specific nations, especially in Asia.
DOTA 2 betting is another very popular form of betting on eSports. Another MOBA, DOTA was originally released in 2003 but expanded in popularity in 2013 with the release of DOTA 2. Gameplay is almost identical to LOL, with the ‘Ancient’ being the name of the target structure. Again, it’s a 5v5 MOBA.
The first DOTA eSports battle took place in 2011, and multiple tournaments have been running ever since. Like League of Legends, DOTA is extremely popular in Asia, with high-paying national leagues.
You will find that most sites that accept eSports betting are DOTA Betting Sites.
FIFA is recognised as the number one football eSports game on the market … or at least it used to be. In 2023 the software firm behind FIFA ended their deal with the world’s top football organisation and explained that the next iteration of their game would be called FC24.
The eSports world still calls it FIFA though, and there are plenty of FIFA betting sites to bet on the world’s number one video sports simulation. There are daily FIFA/FC24 matchups to bet on, with national and international leagues plus the annual FIFAe World Cup which first took place in 2004.
Those four titles are the biggest names at eSports online betting sites, but there are many other popular eSports betting titles albeit with diminished coverage. Here we take a look at some of them.
Others: Street Fighter, Monster Strike, Formula 1, Call of Duty: Warzone, World of Warcraft, Brawl Stars, Guilty Gear, Tekken, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Minecraft, Halo.
Betting on football seems easy. You can wager on the winner, first goalscorer, both teams to score, over/under goals… It’s all fairly intuitive. But what about eSports? How do you place bets at CS betting sites, for example?
Although there are different games, most eSports betting markets work in fairly standard ways. Here are some examples.
The simplest way of betting – bet on who’s going to win. If a tie is possible, then you can bet on that or bet on ‘draw no bet’ the same way you would on football. There’s match handicap betting too.
Nearly all eSports take place on fictional territories which are called maps, whether it’s Anubis in CS:GO, or Summoner’s Rift in LOL. Esports events take place over several rounds, and each round is called a ‘map’. With eSports betting, you can bet on the first map winner, who will win the first map, who will win a specific map and the overall map score. There are also map handicaps.
The other main aspect to bet on with eSports is kills. Most eSports games (except sports simulations) involve the elimination of opponents, either temporarily or permanently. You can bet on a player or team getting the most kills, or the first kill or – if applicable – the game-winning kill.
In some games, and MOBA games in particular, a team can enhance (buff) their powers by killing a boss or creep – a non-player character (NPC) that is difficult to defeat. This could be Roshan the Immortal in DOTA2, or the Infernal Drake in LOL. You may be able to bet on which team or player is the first to kill a specific creep, boss or monster.
That’s our explanation of eSports betting done and dusted, but if you are new to eSport betting, you may be wondering how to get started. We suggest you check out our comprehensive guide to eSports betting and, in the meantime, here are our top five eSports betting tips.
Betting on eSports betting isn’t as big as betting on regular sports, but it’s getting there slowly. This is an exciting hobby for bettors who also happen to love gaming, so if you’re among that number, visit one of the best eSports betting sites and get involved.
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The same as non-eSports. Vast databases of statistical information are consulted and competitors are evaluated on past and recent performances. The odds are derived from probabilities once the house edge has been factored in.
Yes, eSports betting is perfectly legal in the UK, as long as the wagering takes place via a bookmaker with a UKGC licence.
Counter-Strike 2 is the latest iteration of Counter-Strike and the first for almost a decade. Many of the sites on our ‘best of’ list will allow you to bet on Counter-Strike 2, although top betting for Counter-Strike remains the preserve of CS:GO for at least another year.
Yes you can! As eSports are not as yet governed by terrestrial broadcasters, the vast majority of eSport events are broadcast on streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube. Betting sites are generally free to display these streams, so many of them do. And that means you can follow the eSporting action as it unfolds.
Not generally. There are not the numbers yet for betting sites to consider specific bonuses solely for betting on eSports. You should though be able to use any general betting bonus offered by a UK online bookmaker to bet on eSports, but check the offer’s T&Cs to see if you can and any restrictions thereof.
Peter is one of the most well-known and well-respected names working in the field of online sports betting today. Having a Bachelor of Arts degree, Peter has worked for many high-profile publications in the industry, both online and in the real world. He joined the SafestBettingSites team in 2021 and has provided millions of words ever since. When not writing, Peter enjoys performing and writing music, gaming, reading and he is a massive movie buff, with a particular love of Japanese cinema and anime.
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